Afghanistan launches polio vaccination targeting 9.9 mln children

757

KABUL, Jan. 17, 2021 (BSS/Xinhua) – The Afghan Public Health Ministry
launched a nationwide campaign on Sunday to give polio vaccination dose to
9.9 million children under the age of five, the ministry said in a statement.

The five-day drive was launched as 56 polio cases were detected in
Afghanistan in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing insurgency and conflicts have been
hindering the efforts to stamp out the infectious disease in the mountainous
country as millions of children from areas inaccessible to vaccination teams
might miss the ongoing vaccination drive.

Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan are the only two countries in the
world that polio cases are reported every year, according to the statement.